SEVEN Blackburn Rovers’ fans have been jailed for their part in violence which erupted following the club’s first Premier League clash with Burnley.

The fans had pleaded guilty to affray over the incident outside The Station pub in Preston Old Road, Blackburn, hours after the match.

Officers and a horse were hit with pint glasses and beer bottles as rival fans clashed with police trying to keep them apart.

Samuel Bowen, 26, of Melville Drive, Paul Rushton, 46, of Boxwood Drive, and Joshua Riley, 21, Solway Avenue, all Blackburn, and Christopher Sutton, 23, of Meadow Gardens, Rishton, were each jailed for a year and given seven-year football banning orders.

David Comberbach, 41, of Bank Hey View, Blackburn, was jailed for 10 months with a seven-year banning order.

Jordan Hoyle, 19 of Park Farm, was given 16 months and a seven year banning order.

18-year-old Samuel Hindle, of Shadsworth Road, Blackburn was given six months in a young offenders' institute plus a six year banning order.

An earlier hearing had been told the Burnley fans had ‘come looking for a fight’ and police had been fearful that ‘animosity, hatred and simmering rivalry’ would spill over into violence.

Twelve Burnley fans are due to be jailed today at Preston Crown Court for conspiring to commit violent disorder for their part in the derby day incident.

Amongst them is 44-year-old Andrew Porter, the author of Suicide Squad: The Inside Story of a Football Firm.

Porter has also appeared on TV show The Real Football Factories with Danny Dyer.

Porter, a self-employed roofer with 24 previous offences including fights with rival fans at home and abroad, was said by police to have arranged for a convoy of Union Cabs taxis to leave the Royal Butterfly pub in Burnley shortly after 5pm.

But his taxi got lost and he ended up at Blackburn Railway Station instead, frantically ringing his associates to find out what was going on as the incident took place without him.

He was convicted of conspiracy to commit violent disorder mainly on the telephone evidence against him.

While Porter was left stranded, three other vehicles made their way from Burnley to the Texaco garage in Feniscowles, the final rendezvous point before they parked up a few hundred yards from a 'lively and boisterous' The Station pub in Cherry Tree around 6pm.

Prosecuting, Francis McEntee, said the gang spread themselves across the width of Preston Old Road and came over the brow of the hill 'grunting and chanting' “Su-Su-Suicide”.

The landlord of the adjacent Beehive pub brought in elderly bystanders and closed the curtains, fearing his windows were about to be smashed.

Fortunately, a large police operation had been in place for the lunch-time kick-off and that had included a presence at The Station when officers noted that 'risk' Rovers supporters had 'unusually'

started making their way to the premises.

They managed to form a cordon between the Blackburn fans inside and outside the pub and the advancing Burnley fans, eventually 'corralling' the Suicide Squad back in the direction from where they came.

When the group of Burnley fans were arrested on order of the police match commander, one man was found with a snooker ball and a chunky padlock in his pockets for use as potential weapons.

Some of them gave a 'cobbled together' account that they were simply continuing their drinking into Blackburn.

Andrew Porter, 44, of Parliament Street, Daniel Tempest, 27, of Mitton Grove, Paul Hartley, 27, of Church Street, Mark Hamer, 28, of Olivant Close, Scott Page, 26, of Huntroyde Street, all Burnley; Steven Ball, 18, of Crabtree Avenue, Bacup; Joshua Slade, 18, of Kittiwake Road, Chorley; Sean Widdop, of Hornbeam Way, Manchester; Stuart Craig, 23, of Haverholt Close, Colne; Joshua Gornall, 22, of Northview, Eastburn, Yorkshire; Thomas McDonough, 23, of Valley Road, Barnoldswick; and Ian Grice, 37, of Herbert Street, Padiham will be sentenced for conspiracy to commit violent disorder.

The sentencing of two other men, Peter Bulcock, 49, of Dunlin Close, Gloucestershire, and Steven Gornall, 49, of Skipton Road, Steeton, Yorkshire, was adjourned for legal argument.

Click on the link below to see photos of all the jailed fans.